AspectBrowser for Eclipse

Following the lead of the Unix grep tool, AspectBrowser for
Eclipse allows users to visualize programs in a Seesoft-like view by searching
for regular expressions and displaying the results graphically. Additionally,
AspectBrowser includes features to navigate through search results and manage a
potentially large set of regular expressions.

Open up the .zip file and copy the uncompressed
contents of the "plugins" folder (it's a folder named
edu.ucsd.aspectbrowser_1.0.0) to your Eclipse
"plugins" folder (this folder is in the top-level of your
Eclipse installation).

Restart your Eclipse.

After the plugin has been installed, you can start AspectBrowser in Eclipse
by selecting Window→Open Perspective→Other... to bring up the Select
Perspective dialog. In the Select Perspective dialog click on "Aspect Browser"
and then click on "OK".

In the Aspect Tree view you can create and edit aspects and manage them
into groups. In addition, you can view computed source information that
performs a lexical analysis of your programs and shows all existing
Eclipse markers.

Aspect Tree View

Create Aspect
Enter a regular expression into the "Grep Pattern" text field and click on
the "Create Aspect" button (or hit return) to create an aspect. An aspect
is shown when it's check box in the aspect tree is in the checked state.

Create Group
To create a new group, enter in the group name in the "Grep Pattern" text
field and click on the "Create Group" button. A new folder will be created
at the same level as the currently selected item in the aspect tree.

Enable/Disable Highlighting
When this toggle button is pushed down, aspects will appear in not
only the file visualization, but also in open text editors as "highlights".
This feature can allow you to quickly find search results in the text editor.
When the toggle button is up, highlighting is disabled.

Even when highlighting is disabled, aspects will still be represented in
the file visualization.

Remove Aspect (or Group) from Tree
Removes the selected aspect or group from the aspect tree.

The Visualization and Navigation View offers a graphical "map" of your
packages and the files in each package. From this high-level view you can
determine how modularized or crosscutting an aspect is.

Visualization and Navigation View

Move to Next Aspect
Move the text cursor to the next aspect found, possibly opening a new
text editor on a resource to visit it.

Move to Previous Aspect
Move the text cursor back to the previous aspect found.

Move to Most Recent Navigated Location
Double-clicking on areas of files in the file visualization will move the
cursor to that part of the file. This spot is marked with a red circle. If
you've scrolling down after moving to that location

When I reopen Eclipse, the text highlighting disappears. Where did it
go?

Text highlighting is disabled when Eclipse is reopened. To
re-enable it, click on the Enable/Disable Highlighting
toggle in the Aspect Tree view.

What License is the code under?

The code for the
Eclipse plug-in is released under the Common Public
License. Please copy the plug-in code and distribute modifications
as much as you wish, but you must retain the same license.

The plug-in makes use of an external JAR file named Nebulous.jar for
some of the processing. If you are interested in using the source code
of Nebulous.jar for non-commercial purposes or wish to license it,
please contact us.

How can I ask more questions?

Email the team! Please
include your platform and how you used the tool. Also, feedback is much
appreciated!